Isolation Room
by The Hannalizer
Summary: Old school Grey's! Post season 1. A virus has broken out at SGH which forces doctors and nurses to be isolated. This also means that Addison, Derek and Meredith have to co-exist in a very tiny room. MerDer with a hint of Addek-angst.
1. Hell on Earth Day

**_A/N: My first GA fanfic! I'm thinking two or three chapters, so it's a shortie. I hope y'all enjoy it! PLEASE R&R! SERIOUSLY, R&R!_**

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**Isolation Room**

_Chapter one: Hell on Earth Day_

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George steps into the kitchen and sees cookies, muffins and bread everywhere.

"Oh no, Izzie, why are you baking again?" he says, grabbing a hold of a chocolate chip muffin.

She puts down a wooden spoon and turns around to face him. Her face and her apron are covered with flour.

"I couldn't sleep. I feel as if the world is just...," she bites her lip as she searches for the word. Suddenly she faces him and says; "It's a horrible place, George. A horrible place."

She returns to stirring something in a bucket.

"O-kay," George says insecurely and mumbles "I should be going."

He turns around and almost bumps into Meredith, who looks tired and sad.

"Oh hi, good morning, Meredith," George says, but only gets a grunt from her. He moves past her and walk out of the kitchen, quickly deciding that the women in the house weren't to play with today. Far too freaky to even talk to.

Meredith barely notices George and sits down at the kitchen table, slightly moaning. Izzie instantly pours her a cup of coffee.

"You know what Meredith? I've got a really bad feeling about this day, so I couldn't sleep. Do you ever have those feelings?"

Meredith shrugs, too tired and hungover to talk yet, and takes a muffin.

"How do you feel about today? I mean, with McDreamy and McWifey and all...," Izzie doesn't notice that she's probably stepping the line and doesn't see the glare she gets from Meredith. "I mean, if I were you, I'd probably have a bad feeling about every day. But especially this day. But I had a bad feeling from the start you know? I know there's something bad happening, and I know it has got nothing to do with McDreamy."

"He's not McDreamy anymore. He's McMarried. Or, you know what? He's not McAnything."

"Yeah, you're right. He's totally not worth the Mc," Izzie says and licks a spoon with dough.

George sticks his head in the kitchen.

"Hey, we're getting late to work if you're not hurrying up now," he points out, careful not to cause a PMS-attack.

**~GAGAGAGA~**

Later at the hospital Dr. Bailey hands out charts.

"Karev and Yang; you'll be in the pit today," she says, ignoring the frustrated "oh come on" from both of them.

"O'Malley, Dr. Burke. Grey, Dr. Shepherd requested you," Bailey says and Meredith makes a grimace, she really doesn't want to see him. The last time she spoke to him was actually shouting at him after his wife had miraculously popped out of the hat. Or from hell.

"Don't give me that face. I know it might feel hard, but you're an intern and as an intern you'll be where your attending wants you to be."

Meredith nods in defeat, inwardly dreading this day. Maybe Izzie was right.

"And Stevens, you'll be with the other Dr. Shepherd."

"The she-Shepherd?" Izzie repeats.

"Yes," Bailey says with a stern look and hands her the final chart to Izzie and walks away.

"I think you were right about today," Meredith mumbles.

"Yep, hell on earth-day," Izzie sighs in agreement.

When Derek sees Meredith come he steps outside of the patient's room to be able to talk to her.

"Hi Meredith," he says, hoping she'll let him talk this time.

"Hi Dr. Shepherd," she says reluctantly.

"I'm really, really sorry," he says. "And you have to let me explain."

"No," she says and takes a breath not to freak out and shout at him again, which would be worse this time because now it's in front of a lot of more people. "You have nothing to say to me, and I don't even want to look at you," she hisses.

"But I do have something I want to say to you. First of all-"

"No," she interrupts, "we are not having this conversation." To avoid him talking anymore about this she walks past him into the patient's room who happens to be where the chief is hospitalized.

"Oh, chief," Meredith says.

"In person," the chief says. "Are you ready to discharge me yet Shepherd?"

"We'll have to do some tests first. Dr. Grey?"

Meredith uses a small flashlight to see if the chief's eyes are responding normally. It's weird to do this to the chief, she thinks.

"It looks fine," she says.

"I know!" the chief exclaims. "He doesn't want to discharge me!"

"That's not true. And you'll be discharged soon," Derek says while eying the labs.

"What makes you think he wants to be discharged?" asks a smooth female voice. It was Adele, Richard's wife. "Derek, don't you know that this hospital will crumble unless Richard is here holding up the walls?"

"Adele, aren't you supposed to be on vacation?" the chief says, not exactly looking happy.

She kisses his cheek. "You had brain surgery and you didn't tell me?"

"It was just a small procedure," he says, obviously trying to avoid her. He's completely ignoring Meredith and Derek in the room. Meredith gets an out of place feeling and when McWifey sticks her head in, looking all cheeky and assertive and all, doesn't make it better.

"I thought I saw a fabulous looking woman walk by!" Addison says.

"Oh, Addison! So nice to see you!" Adele says and hugs her.

Meredith tries to hide behind the chief's charts, pretending to check his blood count for the fourth time. She glances at Derek to see how he reacts. He looks kind of uncomfortable, but she can't exactly pin-point why. Her guess is that it's because she's there.

"I told Richard I knew you and Derek would get back together," Adele says.

Meredith peeks over the papers and doesn't miss the ice cold gaze the chief gives Derek. Addison hesitates. Derek clears his throat and then she sees Meredith standing there.

"Actually I'm here on a case," Addison says, looking coldly at Meredith.

"Addison and I are over, Adele," Derek says sternly without lifting his gaze from the labs.

"It's not like we're divorced," Addison protests.

"Practically divorced," Derek disagrees.

"You've had counseling?" Adele tries.

"We had adultery, that was enough," Derek says and glances at Meredith.

"Mh!" Addison grunts. "I'll call you later okay?" she says to Adele and leaves.

"You should give her a chance, Derek," Adele tells him.

He gives Meredith a look, ignoring the stern face the chief is still having.

"She's had enough chances. It's nice to see you Adele," he says and kisses her cheek. "I'm sorry you had to see that, Dr. Grey," he adds before leaving.

Meredith takes a deep breath and decides to flee the scene before the chief says something extremely embarrassing.

"Excuse me," she mumbles and walks out of the room.

She sees Derek at the end of the hallway and goes through her options. A. Go ask him about what he meant with having given Addison chances already. B. Walk the other way. C. Go cry in a closet.

Seeing that she's got far too much pride for alternative A. she decides to go cry in a closet. Or at least try to cry. She finds a closet almost right away and closes the door and sits down in a corner with her arms around her knees.

The tears won't come though. She tries to sob and she manages one tear to prickle her eye, but the enormous emptiness in her heart doesn't shrink.

The door opens and Derek walks in.

"Go away," Meredith says and the tears immediately begins to flow.

He closes the door behind him and wraps his arms around her. She cries heavily against his shoulder.

"I hate you," she hulks.

"Okay," he says and kisses the top of her head, stroking her arm.

"You can't do that anymore," she says and shrugs him off.

In that moment Derek's pager starts beeping.

"A 911," he says and gets to his feet. Turning around and facing her he says "You're coming with me. As my intern," before hurrying out of the closet.

**~GAGAGAGA~**

The paramedics has rolled in a woman with a head trauma caused by a car accident. Derek's eying the scans of the woman's brain Meredith has brought him and he directly sees an aneurysm.

"Oh, you see this?" he says.

"An aneurysm," Meredith answers.

"We have to operate on this immediately. She's bleeding into her brain."

They don't see when Addison and Izzie comes walking towards them.

"Aha, so my husband and his twelve-year-old are hanging out here," Addison says crossing her arms. "Can I join in on the fun?"

"Addison. I'm working. And where did you come from?"

"They asked for a consult. She's pregnant. Didn't you know?" she says.

Izzie goes and stands beside Meredith. Both of them looks terrified.

"So I thought, with you two standing here, we could walk together to see our patient," she continues falsely merrily.

"She's in the end of the hallway, you could just go there yourself," Derek says, wiping off the smile from her face. "Seriously, I can see her room from here."

Meredith thinks about walking away, because she shouldn't really be seeing all this, but something makes her hold her ground. Walking away will probably mean she lets them be together and is okay with that, but staying is more a signal that she's actually there and tugging on Derek's shirt, so to speak.

Addison seems quite uncomfortable with her presence and steps forward to Derek, lowers her voice while saying "You can't talk to me like that, especially not in front of her. You said we'd work thi-"

"No, _you_ said," Derek says and then walks past her.

"Derek!" Addison calls out, and then seems to urge forward to follow him, but stops in the motion and glares at Izzie. "What are you doing? Go do intern stuff!" After saying that she walks away.

Izzie doesn't follow and stays with Meredith in the hallway. When Addison has disappeared into the patient's room after Derek, they both dares to breath.

"Oh wow," Izzie laughs in shock.

"Yeah, I know," Meredith sighs.

"She's like the most perfect person I've met," Izzie says, staring at the place where they last saw Addison.

"Yeah," Meredith nods. "She probably poops flowers and has a morning breath that smells like mint. It would be so much easier for me to hate her if she were more ugly."

"Maybe she's got a really ugly inside. She might be the queen of all evil."

"Might? She obviously is. And Derek is her king..."

"Hey Mer, Izz!" Cristina suddenly shouts from behind them. They turn around and Cristina runs to them.

"I found her! I've ordered the pre-op labs and ultrasound. I earn this surgery!"

"But Cristina-"

"No, Meredith," she interrupts and puts her hands on Meredith's shoulders. "I need this surgery, I can't do sutures and rectal exams all day."

"You've got rectal exams in the pit?" Izzie asks, baffled.

"Yes, far too many this morning. I _need_ this surgery, so don't try to stop me," she says and hurries down the corridor to talk to the Shepherds. Izzie and Meredith follows slowly.

When they get there Derek is having the chart and a pen in his hands. Addison stands beside him, smiling at her coldly when she comes inside.

"We already have interns for this procedure, Yang," Addison says.

"But I did the-"

"You can be with me today," Derek says and puts down the chart.

Addison stares at him in disbelief.

"What? You already have-"

"Yes, I know. But I shouldn't let her suffer," he answers and looks sadly at Meredith, which makes it kind of obvious he's talking about Meredith's suffering and not Cristina's.

"I'll take Grey," Addison says with her chin up high. "Sorry, Stevens, you can go do... suturing."

"But that's not right. You can't do that!" Izzie protests.

"Watch me," Addison snaps. "I'd like to see if you have any other skills than sleeping with my husband, Grey," she says to Meredith and hands her a chart.

Derek takes a firm grip on Addison's upper arm and drags her out of the patient's room.

"This sucks," Izzie says and stomps out of there, but she's not cocky enough to show her rage to the attendings.

Cristina doesn't seem to care about Izzie's misfortune. She's dancing a sort of happiness-dance to Meredith.

"Stop it," Meredith says to her. "There's nothing about this to be happy about. I'm gonna be tormented the whole day now!"

"Oh, buhu!"

Meanwhile outside the window, Derek looks crossed with Addison. They are talking with their heads close together while making angry faces.

"They're arguing," Meredith points out, looking out at them.

"Yeah. So unprofessional. You're totally better off without him."

"Hey... Doctor..."

Their attention turns immediately to the patient. She looks pale and her eyes have a shiny tint. Cristina puts her hand on the patient's forehead.

"Oh, she's burning up," she says to Meredith.

She checks her throat.

"The pharynx's swollen. How do you feel Mrs. Griffin?"

"I don't feel so good... My head hurts..."

"Have you been abroad recently?"

"Uhm... I've been to Congo-Kinshasa about two weeks ago."

Cristina leans in to Meredith and whispers in her ear.

"The incubation time is far too long to be malaria."

"What if she's got Ebola?" Meredith whispers back.

"That'd be so cool."

"90% fatality rates, Cristina. It's not cool."

"It is. It so totally is."

"Well, we'd have to run some tests first to be sure. You have to talk to McCouple. I can't deal with them right now. Or ever. You can have them, I don't want them."

"Fine by me," Cristina says and walks out to the Shepherds.

"...always looking at her, and I just-"

"-You didn't have to come to Seattle."

Cristina clears her throat to get their attention.

"We are married."

"You ended that marriage."

Cristina clears her throat again, getting annoyed.

"It's not ended!"

"Practically."

"Hey!" Cristina shouts, and get both of their angry faces at her.

"What?" they both spit.

"I mean, hey," she says, in a more normal tone.

"What do you want, Yang?" Derek demands.

"The patient's got a fever and her pharynx is swollen. She complains about headache and malaise."

"We can't operate on her in that state," Derek says, sounding worried.

"And she's been to the Democratic Republic of the Congo two weeks ago."

"She may have contracted typhoid fever," Addison suggests, also worried.

"Meredith and I are thinking Ebola."

"Ebola!" Derek laughs. "That's ridiculous! The last out-break was in 2003."

Cristina and Addison glares at him.

"Doesn't really matter...?" he says self-consiously.

Addison nods, then turns to Cristina.

"Do the tests."

"Yes, ma'am."

**~GAGAGAGA~**

The chief made Derek discharge him when he heard the news about the Ebola virus. He stands with his hands on his hips.

"Everyone present around the patient is to be isolated," he orders. "Here I have a list of the people in contact with the patient. After I've read the names, you'll go to the rooms we've isolated and there you'll undergo tests. I have a list of 10 people from this hospital. These are the following doctors' names: Dr. Miranda Bailey, Dr. Cristina Yang, Dr. Addison Shepherd, Dr. Isobel Stevens, Dr. Derek Shepherd, Dr. Meredith Grey. And these are the following nurses: Nurse Olivia Harper, Nurse Bethany Davidson, Nurse Melany Carlton, Nurse Gregory Palmer. You are to be isolated. Immediately."


	2. Caged Rabbits

**Isolation Room**

_Chapter two: Caged Rabbits_

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The hospital has embarked the ten staff members in isolation. The isolation consists of two big rooms with six beds in one and 4 beds in the other. The only thing that gives the rooms some sense of privacy is a couple of draperies that separates the beds from each other. There's facilities, but no food. The food will other hospital staff provide them with.

"So, hopefully, y'all gonna behave. Just remember, I'll be watching each and every one of you. I see and I hear _everything_," Bailey threats, pointing at everyone before they go inside.

Derek and Addison aren't talking to each other at this point.

"You sleep there, and I'll sleep here," Derek says and picks a room.

Addison, not willing to argue anymore, is okay with that and goes in the other room with no further comment.

"Wow, the happily married doesn't seem so happy," Izzie points out.

"This sucks," Cristina says, ignoring everything else around her, and dumps a small bag on one of the beds.

"Did you have time to pack? I didn't have time to do anything," Izzie says.

"I ran to the kiosk and bought some snacks. I thought we'd need it."

"Cool," Izzie says when taking a peek into the bag.

Meredith doesn't listen to her friends. Instead she directs her attention to Derek, who sits down on a bed at the far end in the room and runs his fingers through his hair.

Nurse Olivia and the only male nurse in this group choses this room too. They're taking the beds beside Derek's.

"Rough day?" the male nurse asks him.

"Yeah, no doubt about that," Derek says.

Meredith starts moving towards him but is stopped by Cristina.

"Where do you think you're going? Leave him alone. Leave yourself alone. Have some Skittles."

"I can't spend... I can't be isolated together with him."

"They'll probably just keep us here a couple of hours. Ebola is not that contagious in the early stages," Izzie says hopefully.

"Yeah, right! They'll keep us here for days. They'll worry that the virus hasn't been in our systems long enough to show," Cristina says.

"I can't believe," Izzie says, shaking her head slowly. "I can't believe I was right about today. I had a feeling. A feeling that made me want to stay home... Baking or something... And now there's an Ebola virus in the hospital. How weird is that?"

"Please, don't let me rot in here," Meredith mutters.

**~GAGAGAGA~**

Three days pass and the tests have been done. All they can do now is wait for the results. Derek and Addison haven't talked much, but not fighting as vigorously either, probably mostly because of all the people around them.

Derek has tried to talk to Meredith, but either Addison or Meredith's annoying friends is in the way all the time. On this third day he gets an idea to how to get her alone and that is to wait for Meredith to go to have a shower. But after getting the idea, the wait seems tremendously long.

The male nurse Greg and Nurse Olivia are having sex every night, making it impossible for Derek to sleep, since he is very sensitive to sounds. Richard has given him ear-plugs, but that's two nights without good sleep, so he was very impatient.

"How can I make her have a shower?" he whispers to Greg, who he has become kind of friends with.

"Excuse me?"

"I need Meredith to take a shower, how would you make that happen?"

Derek gets a strange look from the nurse.

"I don't know. Spill something in her hair?"

"Good idea. You do it. 20 bucks."

"What? No way!" He says, but Derek opens his wallet and hands him the money, with a pleading look on his face.

"Please?" he says.

"Okay then..."

Dr. Grey has occupied the bed in the middle of that row of beds. Her friends, the Asian and the blond have beds around her. They are laughing and eating unhealthy things. You'd think doctors thinks more about their diet, but here is proof they don't.

Dr. Grey was drinking a Coke. He swallows his pride and then "falls" on top of her, making sure the Coke hits some parts of her. Making her sticky and icky. She'd have to crave for a shower.

"I'm so, so sorry!" he says. "I tripped, I didn't mean to."

"Get off me!" she growls.

Dr. Shepherd has risen from his bed and goes over there.

"What are you doing?" he asked him, as if it wasn't his idea in the first place.

He's now standing up. His green scrubs are stained with the sugary drink. Meredith looks worse though. She's furious and stomps into the ladies bathroom. Derek follows her.

"Do you want any help?" he asks kindly.

"Leave me alone."

"Okay."

But he's not exactly planning to leave her alone. There's two shower cabinets in the ladies bathroom. He sits outside waiting for her to get into the shower. When the water is running, he gives her another minute and then he goes to talk to her.

He stands outside of the cabinet.

"Meredith."

She screams in shock.

"What are you doing here? Go away!"

"I want to be alone with you. I want to explain."

"But I don't want to hear it. And I'm naked. I am naked in a shower. And this is more inappropriate than it started out to be. You're married, that's all I need to know."

"Please let me talk to you. Please?"

"Give me a towel."

"Nothing I haven't seen before," he jokes.

"Stop it! No! No more sexually tinted jokes! It's not allowed. You're married. You lied to me. Nothing you'll ever do is going to make up for that," she nearly yells through the booth's walls, thinking that the effect of her yelling would be bigger if she hadn't been naked in a shower.

Derek gets her a towel and holds on to it while saying "I know. But I still want to explain. You deserve an explanation."

There's a moment of silence between them.

"Okay," she finally says and he hands her the towel over the cabinet's wall.

She opens the booth's door. Water is dripping from her hair and body.

"Stop looking at me like that!"

"Like what?"

"Like you're my boyfriend. You are _married_ for God's sake! And you're married with a woman who's not easy to hate. So just stop it."

"I'm sorry."

"Stop saying you're sorry!"

"What should I say then?" Derek asks, annoyed that she gets agitated whatever he does, or doesn't do.

"What you came here to say in the first place."

The two things that goes through his brain is to either rip the towel apart and kiss her or go all the way through with that train of thought. The other thing he's currently pondering is to actually tell her what happened that night when he left Addison. He'll probably not pull off both.

He follows on impulse and takes a grip on her shoulders and kisses her. She doesn't respond at first, but she does not fight back either. He lets his hands move further down and lets them stay by the waist, just to be sure. The kisses are careful, like there's question marks linked to them.

He tores himself from her and turns around. Frustrated. He pulls his hands through his hairs, while walking in a small circle and coming back to Meredith.

"What are you doing? You can't keep doing stuff like this. You can't just kiss me and then walk away. You can't be married and be my boyfriend. You have to chose. You have to be consequent."

He sits down on a wooden bench and looks at her.

"You ready to hear the ugly truth?"

She doesn't do or say anything so he takes that as a yes.

"One night, I came home. Everything was the same, except for jacket that wasn't mine. But I knew that jacket. It belonged to my best friend Mark. I walk up the stairs and already know what I'm about to see. My wife cheating on me with Mark. So I left. Came here. And then I met you. It was like I was in the water. You were like coming up for fresh air. ...That's all I know."

"It's not enough," she says, but he can easily see that knowing has made an impact on her.

"Meredith," he says almost pleadingly and looks at her.

"Why are you making it harder for me to hate you? I hate you and your wife, but it gets harder every hour."

"Maybe you're getting tired," he jokes.

"Yeah, maybe I am. And it's _your_ fault," she says and points accusingly at him. "I don't want your messy life. I've got my own messy life. And you lied to me about your messy life, proclaiming that it wasn't messy in the first place. But it was messy, and it'll always be messy."

"I didn't lie, I was just not telling the entire truth. But I was going to tell you."

"If you had really left her. Wouldn't you have been able to tell me then?"

He doesn't answer.

"Exactly. You had already chosen by then."

"No, that's not true. Meredith, Addison will be leaving after this. She doesn't have any patients anymore, so she's got no reason at all to stay."

"Won't she stay for you?"

"Have you seen us fighting? She's Satan," he says, getting followed by a piercing glare from Meredith.

"You know what? This is your problem."

"My what?"

"Your problem is that you say stuff and you don't mean them. Sometimes I wonder if you ever really know what you even think!"

"Oh, come on, that's not fair!"

"You can't even kiss me properly. You're like Addison-Meredith, Meredith-Addison," she says, pretending to whey herself and Addison in her hands. "And you know what else? I'm not going to be a part of that. She can have your messy life," she says and storms past him.

He takes a grip by her wrist.

"Let me go," she says.

"No."

"You can't have me."

"Fine, but you're about to show yourself only dressed in a towel for a lot of people. Nurses. The nurses will talk."

"That's true," she admits.

He pulls her into an embrace.

"What are you doing?"

He smothers her with a deep kiss, showing her what he wants. She doesn't fight him at all and quickly melts in his arms.

"Please stop hating me," he mumbles and places butterfly kisses down her neck.

"I'll think about it," she breathes and unties his scrub pants. He quickly frees himself of the shirt and then kisses her again.

She pulls down his pants and lets him loosen the towel. He frees himself of other clothing and starts to engage in more interesting things like feeling her up.

"You wanna take a shower?" she asks and drags him inside the shower booth.

"Okay," he breathes and shuts the door behind them. She turns on the water and he lifts her up and she willingly wraps her legs around his waist. "You know it is stupid to have sex when one of us might have Ebola," he points out.

"Shut up."

**~GAGAGAGA~**

"I just don't know what to think anymore. He's moved on. The only thing we do is fight now. I don't see how we can get through this," Addison sighs. "Once he thought of me as the love of his life."

"Do I look like I care?" Bailey says.

"Oh, come on, Miranda! Spare some of the attitude, I need a friend right now."

"Stupid, stupid," she mutters, "I was so stupid to work in the pit today. Stupid Ebola virus..."

She mutters something incoherent and then says with a clear, agitated voice "You really wanna know what I think?"

Addison nods, but suddenly feels like she's asked for too much.

"I think that he's a stupid, arrogant and lazy man surrounded by two very fine women. He ain't worth any of you and if I were you, I wouldn't give a rat's ass about him."

"Okay, I really didn't want to know," Addison says and lies down on her bed.

"I think he's not capable to make a decision of his own, and if none of you make that decision for him, he ain't gonna do a darn thing about it."

"You mean he'd have us both?" Addison says and turns her head to face Bailey.

"That's exactly what I think, if both of you wants him, which I can't comprehend at all! _At all!_"

"Okay, thanks for the advice..."

"No, I ain't finished yet," Bailey says followed by a moan from Addison. "He's gonna do what's convenient for him. If you leave him, he'll run to Meredith, and if she leaves him, he sure as hell is gonna run to you. If you start fighting over him, he'll go mope around for the rest of the eternity and, or, cheat on you both!"

"Jeez, Mir..."

"I'm just saying."

"You're _just saying_ that my husband is an idiot, a wuss and a creep?"

"I ain't saying that. Those are your words, honey," Bailey says, glaring at her.

Addison raises her eyebrows.

"What do you think I should do?"

"I think you both better realize that you're worth much more than the idiot, wuss and creep of a husband you've got there."

"So, we both should walk away?" Addison says, as if these words feel weird to pronounce.

"That's what I'm saying."

"But I still love him. I want my old Derek back."

"Honey, your old Derek is far gone."

"Why are you so mean?"

"You know they call me the Nazi."

"With good reason," Addison mutters.

**~GAGAGAGA~**

"You know this was a one time occasion," Meredith says, putting on panties.

"Sure," Derek shines, pulling his boxers back on.

"Stop it! Stop looking at me like-"

"Like you've seen me naked? Come on, Meredith," he smiles.

"No, like you think this is going to happen again. Because it won't," she says and pulls her arms through the straps of her bra.

"You don't have to hate me," he says and kisses her quickly. "It's so last season."

She glares at him, then softens.

"It's exhausting to hate you," she says. "But I have no idea what will happen next. I'm a girl with serious abandonment issues. I am scared, Derek. I'm scared that you'll have sex with me and then go back to your wife."

"She's leaving Seattle, Meredith," he says and pulls his shirt over his head.

"Are you getting a divorce?" she asks and ties her pants.

"We haven't really talked about that yet..."

"You see?" she says and pulls her shirt on. "This is exactly what I mean. My legs are closed until you have decided."

She walks out, leaving Derek with a lot in his head. He knows what he should do – file for a divorce. But something makes him hesitate. Something makes him hold on to Addison.


	3. Processing, Reassessing and Accepting

**A/N: Okay, when I first thought two, I was like it's probably gonna be three, and now it's four, typical me, lol! And it's not like it started out to be. XD Please R&R and let me know what you think of the development of this story. Thanks so much for reading! R&R!**

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**Isolation Room**

_Chapter three: Processing, Reassessing and Accepting_

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"I know you and McBastard did the McNasty," Cristina whispers. "We could hear you, but even if we hadn't heard anything, it would still be kind of obvious."

"I'm not sure he even is McBastard any more. I don't know... Maybe – maybe he could become McDreamy again."

"Aaw, ew! I'm repelled!" she exclaims, then whispers again "Look at him, his eyes are all cuddly and gooey when he looks at you. You didn't do the McNasty, you did the McLovey. That's revolting."

"We did not," Meredith says, which makes Cristina lift her eyebrows. "We did not do the McLovey. We did the McNasty, and it's not happening again," she whispers.

"Oh, so you admit it?"

Meredith rolls her eyes at her.

"You know what? I might be dying in here and you don't even spare me details."

"You're not dying."

"Oh, I so am."

Meredith doesn't bother to answer and follows Derek with her gaze and gets slightly alarmed when she sees him walking to the other room.

**~GAGAGAGA~**

"Derek? You've showered?" Addison says when Derek comes over.

"Yeah," he answers and smiles. "Don't sound so surprised."

"Oh, no, not about the showering... I mean...," Addison interrupts herself with a sigh. "Never mind."

Bailey shoots him with killing stares. He ignores her and sits down on Addison's bed.

"I'm sorry for calling you Satan," he says.

Addison smiles at him, looking almost as if she's about to cry.

"Thank you," she breaths and leans in to kiss him. They haven't kissed yet, and Derek's not sure if he wants to do that yet – or – again.

Saved by the bell, a team of residents comes in, dressed in protecting gowns with masks and goggles. They are back to take more tests and see if anyone has gotten ill yet.

**~GAGAGAGA~**

Two days later the chief takes a visit to provide them with the news of their medical states.

"We've got the test results," he informs. "You who have got a negative result will be able to carry on with your lives normally, but will be under further observations with more tests the following week."

"What will happen to the ones with a positive result?" Addison asks.

"You'll be moved to smaller rooms where you'll be quarantined until the disease has left your system. I am very sorry to inform the following personnel that they have a positive result," he says and takes a deep breath. "Dr. Miranda Bailey, Dr. Addison Shepherd, Dr. Derek Shepherd and Dr. Cristina Yang. Congratulations everyone else."

Meredith freezes inside. She has had unprotected sex with Derek. He is infected. She might be infected too, she can't go outside, that'd put the whole hospital – the whole city for God's sake – in danger.

She raises her hand. Derek glances at her and shakes his head slowly. He's realized what she's realized, but he's more worried about other things around the issue.

"Yes, Dr. Grey?" the chief says.

"What if you might have gotten infected later? I'd like to take the test again."

"But the Ebola has remained in the early stages and no one has gotten ill yet. There's no reason for you to take the test unless you...," and the confusion goes to realization, "Oh..."

Meredith keeps her face down at her toes, as shame prickles her skin. In the corner of her eye, she can see how Addison connects the dots, shifting her gaze from Derek to Meredith and from Meredith to Derek.

When the chief has collected himself he demands "Okay, order another test for Grey."

**~GAGAGAGA~**

Addison, Derek, Meredith, Bailey and Cristina are the only ones left. They are waiting to be moved to another room where they'll be quarantined and treated. The mood is really low. Cristina has a small fever, even though she proclaims she doesn't. Addison is swallowing her anger. Bailey sees that she wants to speak up and drags Cristina along with her to the other room, to give the three some privacy. Of course she'll listen and break it off if it gets too rough.

"When?" Addison asks calmly. She's standing up. Derek and Meredith are sitting on beds opposite of each other. Addison's fists are clenched, but everything else about her seems calm and collected.

No one answers her.

"I deserve to know when," she says with a shaky voice.

"A couple of days ago," Derek answers quietly.

A small whine lets out from Addison's throat as she's fighting crocodile tears to well over.

"Why?" she sobs and a silent tear gleams on her cheek.

"I don't know," Derek answers even more quietly.

Addison lets out a loud sob and then tears start to stream down her face.

"So that is why you took back the Satan-thing," she cries, her words are almost hard to comprehend because of the tears. She's crying heavily now. "I'm so sorry about the crying, I know it must bother you."

"It's okay, Addison," Meredith says.

"No, don't you dare speak to me," Addison snaps at her.

"Addison!" Derek says.

"I can't even look at either one of you right now," she says before going to lock herself in inside of the bathroom.

"Great," Derek sighs looking at Meredith.

"You think this is my fault?" Meredith says, shocked.

He doesn't say anything but his expression says more than a thousand words.

"Oh my God... You think this is my fault! How could it be my fault?" Meredith says, raising her voice, both perplexed and pissed off.

"You didn't have to ask for another test in front of _everyone!_"

"I'm so hating you again!" she shrieks, standing up. "Were you even planning to choose me? Were you even thinking about picking me? I thought it meant something!"

"You were the one who said it wouldn't happen again!"

"You – are – _so_ – STUPID! I HATE YOU!" she screams and takes a blow at his face.

"Aow!" they both cries.

Addison comes out of the bathroom to see what's going on, at the same time Bailey storms over there, followed by Cristina.

"What is going on in here?" Bailey rumbles.

Meredith is clutching her hand, rocking back and forth in pain and Derek is covering his nose in hands, blood leaking between his fingers.

"I think I broke a finger," Meredith says between clenched teeth.

"I'm bleeding," Derek says with amazement, "But... Her fists... They're so tiny..."

"Well, you both deserved it," Bailey says and takes a look at Meredith's hand.

To everyone's big surprise and astonishment Addison begins to laugh. She laughs and she laughs and she laughs. Bringing with her the others in laughter, even though their laughter has a more nervous touch.

Izzie and George come into the room with clothes, goggles and masks for them to wear while walking to the other room. They stop dead at the opening and just watches the scene that's played in front of them.

Addison supports herself against the wall, curling in laughter, tears running down her face. Meredith laughs, holding her hand and Derek laughs, blood all over his face and clothes. Cristina is curled up in a bed, laughing almost as hard as Addison. Bailey stands with her hands on her hips, shaking her head, but smiling.

"What is... What is going on?" George asks.

"These fools have put themselves in a mess that just turned violent. And now they're acting like even bigger fools, laughing about it," Bailey explains looking with disgust at Derek.

"Wow," Izzie says. "I didn't know Ebola make you go crazy."

"It doesn't!" Bailey says. "These idiots are crazy on their own."

Derek stops laughing a bit and mumbles puzzled "Did she just call me an idiot?"

"Everything's not about you, Derek! The world doesn't evolve around you," Meredith somehow manage to laugh angrily.

"Seriously... What happened in here?" Izzie asks, staring at them with bewildered eyes.

"I don't think we really want to know," George mumbles to Izzie.

"They had sex," Addison giggles, "and Derek got his ass kicked by his oh-so-perfect twelve-year-old!" she says and begins laughing even more hysterically.

"O-kay... This is strange, Izz," George mutters in Izzie's ear. He then raises his voice to talk to the group "Actually, we just came here to move you. So, you'll have to put this on so we can go..."

Addison walks up to them, laughing, and when she grabs the plastic gown she starts to cry instead. The laughing instantly dies off.

"Oh," Izzie says, and then Addison hugs her. Shocked, Izzie pats her attending on the back.

The group calms itself down and everyone is taking on the gowns, gloves, caps, goggles and masks. Izzie helps Addison, who's crying less and less by the minute.

The group walks like a small train in the vacated hallways. They aren't talking, laughing nor crying. Sometimes Addison lets out a small sob, but that's it.

The new quarantine consists of two separate rooms. It's impossible to walk between these rooms, so the group has to split up. The thought behind this was to give them a more sense of privacy and calm. These rooms are also more equipped to treat seriously ill patients.

"Okay, how do you want to do this?" Izzie asks the group nervously when they're outside of the two doors.

Bailey glares at her. Meredith crosses her arms in a mopey gesture while Derek tries to ignore Addison's hopeful gaze. Cristina looks bored.

Bailey follows Izzie's look at the others and stares at them all.

"Okay, this is how we do this," Bailey then says, clasping her hands together. "You three have got serious issues to deal with," she says pointing at Meredith, Derek and Addison. "I say, deal with them. And leave us out of it."

"Oh thank god," Cristina sighs.

Addison groans and Derek protests "You are not in charge here!"

"You know what? I think it's a great idea," Izzie says, but adds "Sorry Mer..."

"So it's settled then," Bailey says coldly and stares at him with even more cold eyes.

**~GAGAGAGA~**

George and Izzie checks temperature and vitals on the doctors. Izzie also takes some blood from Meredith so that they can do the test again before she takes her to do a X-ray on her hand.

"Was it worth it?" Izzie asks her when they are outside in the empty hallways.

"Probably not," Meredith answers.

It seems as though she hasn't broken her finger, but only sprained it. Izzie wraps bandage around two fingers and over her hand. Then she follows Meredith back to her room.

"And Mer... I'm so sorry about the room-thing."

"It's fine," Meredith sighs.

"No, it's not fine. You shouldn't have to be locked in together with them. I'm so sorry. I truly am."

"Then why did you agree with Bailey? You said you thought it was a good idea," Meredith says, trying not to sound too angry.

"Because she's Bailey, and she's really scary! And I'm really tired and working extra shifts now when you guys are gone and some has skipped work because they're scared of the Ebola virus. But seriously, I'm more scared of Bailey, and if she doesn't want to spend time with you guys, she won't have to. I'm sorry. Seriously."

Meredith frowns and they walk under silence for a while. She soon thinks the silence gets awkward and decides to change the subject in their minds to something completely else.

"So, what are you guys doing while we are caged up?" she therefore asks.

Izzie lights up right away.

"George says that there was a massive cardio case. Dr. Burke needed lots of help, so both he and Alex got to scrub in. George got to do a running-whip-stitch! Can you believe it Mer? So amazing."

"Okay, don't tell Cristina that," Meredith jokes.

"It's gonna be boring without you guys around. I hope you make it through easily. Not that you wouldn't. But, I mean 90% fatality rate, that's hard, but that was in Congo-Kinshasa. That makes it different. I'm sure as long as they stop your bleedings and keep you hydrated, I'm sure you're going to be fine. Just fine..."

"Izzie. You're babbling."

"Oh, sorry," Izzie says, stopping outside of the quarantined room. "Good luck, Mer. Don't hit anyone again. It's not worth it. Protect your surgeon hands."

**~GAGAGAGA~**

To Meredith's dread her test results ended up positive. All she can do is to wait to get sick and then get better. In the meanwhile she has got to survive something much worse...

"So, we're alone," Derek states with an empty tone of voice, burying his face in his pillow.

"Yep," Meredith says. She's sitting at her bed, wiggling her toes, at the far end of the room, to avoid the McMarried as much as possible.

"I'm still not really talking to you two," Addison tells them. She's staring at the ceiling in a bed beside Derek's.

"Oh, that's a real loss," Derek mutters, turning around so his words won't get muffled by the pillow.

"Stop treating me like that! I do not deserve that treatment!" Addison protests, sitting up.

"Yeah, right," Derek says sarcastically.

"I'm not the only one responsible! You haven't been the best husband Derek," Addison says, raising her voice.

Meredith gets to her feet.

"Stop it!" she yells.

Both Addison and Derek turn around to look at her.

"We are locked in here. Quarantined, isolated. All three of us are going to get seriously ill – deadly ill! And you can't be fighting all the time! Otherwise, we better just slit our wrists right here and now and be done with it!"

"Jeez, Meredith, calm down," Derek says, staring at her with his mouth open with a baffled expression on his face.

"No, Derek. She's right."

"So, apologize or something," Meredith urges them which gives her killing stares from two pairs of eyes.

"Yeah, Derek, apologize," Addison says draggily.

"Why should I apologize? You apologize!"

"You both apologize!" Meredith says, clenching her fists (or as much as she can with one of them).

"And you," Addison squints at Meredith, "you should apologize to me for stealing my husband."

"I didn't even know he was a husband. That's not fair."

"That's true. Leave her out of it Addie."

"Am I being called Addie now?" Addison asks with a bit more softer voice.

"Whatever," Derek grunts.

"Seriously, just apologize," Meredith says, starting to feel tired.

"I guess I should start," Addison sighs. "I'm sorry for sleeping with Mark."

"I'm sorry for... calling you Satan."

"You're not sorry for sleeping with Meredith?" Addison asks with disbelief.

"No. She was the best thing that happened to me," Derek says, holding his eyes steady at Addison and totally ignoring Meredith.

Addison doesn't answer right away. Her eyes flickers to Meredith and she's swallowing the hurt.

"Haven't you considered that I still might be the love of your life? That I still might be the best thing that's happened to you?"

"I don't know Addie... I don't want to consider anything. You are going back to New York when we get out of here."

"Come with me."

"No, I'm staying. You know I'm staying."

"But you're my husband..."

"Yeah, you should have thought of that before you slept with my best friend!"

Addison gets to her feet and shouts "You should have thought of that before you practically made me sleep with him!"

"Made you?" he growls, getting to his feet as well.

"Yeah! You were _never_ there Derek! Never! I was _so_ alone! And then I slept with him in an act of desperation! I was desperate for you to see me! And then when you saw what we did, you just walked away. You _walked_ away, Derek!"

"Why did it have to be Mark?"

"Mark was there. He saw me. He saw me when you didn't. You were the one who should have seen me, but you didn't and that's on you."

"It's still your fault. Why you cheated doesn't matter, the thing that matters is that – you – did!"

Meredith decides to not just stand there and watch them fight, so she steps between them while shouting "hey hey hey!"

"Don't interfere, Meredith," Derek says coldly, without losing eye contact with his wife.

"No, don't tell me what to do. I'm a part of this."

"No you're not," Derek says sharply.

"Yes she is," Addison says. "She's a perfect example of you being childish! After just walking away you choose a twelve-year-old to screw around with as revenge!"

"That's not true!" Derek rumbles, towering over Addison, who's holding her ground.

"Stop it!" Meredith yells. "What the hell is wrong with you two?"

"Fine," Derek says and walks away to get some privacy, which makes him go to the bathroom, the only place where they can be alone.

Addison sighs and lies down on her bed, turning her back to Meredith.


	4. Leaving Dark and Twisty

_**A/N: Final chappie! God knows how I really couldn't decide how to end this. My friends adviced me not to go completely crazy with it, try to keep it normal, they said, and go crazy with a sequel. So I tried. You might guess what I first wanted the ending to be like. ;P Anyway. Read it. Tell me what you think. Did you like it? Did it suck ass? Please review! :D LOVE Y'ALL!**_

* * *

**Isolation Room**

_Chapter four: Leaving Dark and Twisty_

* * *

A day later the three has calmed down. They haven't fought anymore, but pretty much ignored each other instead.

"Hey guys," are the first words being spoken since the big fight the day before, and it's Addison who cautiously says them. "I've got a fever."

"And so it begins," Derek mumbles and sits down on Addison's bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Not so good," she says and tugs at her cover, pulling it up to her chin to give her more warmth.

"You should get some rest," Derek says, feeling her forehead.

"Yeah," Addison sighs. "Doesn't neither one of you feel at least a tiny bit of malaise?"

Derek looks at Meredith who shrugs. "Nope," he says.

"Oh, screw you two... Why am I the one being punished?"

"God works in mysterious ways," Derek answers simply.

"I do not need this right now," Addison says.

"Yeah, get over yourself, Derek. She's getting sick, and we both will also get sick. You can't go around and sulk now. It's not anything any of us needs right now. So just... get over yourself."

Derek nods.

Addison soon falls asleep, exhausted by the sudden fever.

"Are you doing alright?" Derek asks Meredith in a whisper.

"Depends on how you mean. Medically, I'm fine, yet anyway. But you know I'm damaged, and you are not really making that damage any better right now."

"I'm sorry," he says, looking at her with sad eyes.

"I guess it's okay."

He sits down beside her on her bed, their backs to Addison.

"It's not okay," he says and strokes some of her hair behind her ear.

She shrugs and he moves closer to her and wraps his arms around her.

"It's not okay, and I'm sorry. I'm really sorry," he whispers with his lips pressed against the soft skin under her ear.

"But you won't leave her."

"I don't know, Meredith."

"Why?" she asks, not succeeding to not sound annoyed.

"Because she's my wife and I once thought of her as the love of my life. I don't want to give up something like that so easily. I feel like I have to give her a chance."

"But will you be able to think of her that way again?"

"I think so."

Meredith shrugs herself out of his embrace.

"Then what are you doing with me?" she asks harshly, not looking at him.

"I love you."

She stares at him. His face is soft and open, even though his eyes looks worried.

"I... I can't," she stutters and takes a deep breath before speaking normally. "I don't want your messy life. I told you," she says.

"I know."

"I thought you weren't messy, but you are very messy. And I really don't need messy."

"I know."

"Stop saying that."

"Okay," he smiles slightly and leans in to kiss her. She doesn't pull away, which she thinks she should, but she doesn't, and as a consequence their lips meet.

She puts her hands on his cheeks, kissing him deeper. His arms smoothly slide around her waist and pulls her close. She enjoys the moment, but it doesn't feel right, so she shrugs him off again.

"It doesn't feel right. I don't understand what you are doing. You tell me that you love me and you tell me that you want to stay with your wife. It doesn't make any sense."

"What if we could compromise?"

Her jaw drops.

"What?" she spits.

"It could work," he smiles.

"Date us both or something?" she gasps when he nods. "No, it doesn't work that way!" she exclaims. "You can't have us both, you have to chose. That is how it works. You just can't both have your wife and your girlfriend. It's not right and I'm not up for it!" she hisses and goes to lock herself in inside of the bathroom for a while. Derek follows her and knocks on the door.

"Meredith?"

"Go away!"

"Meredith, come on," he sighs, leaning his forehead against the door.

"I don't even know who you are anymore."

"I love you. I don't want to lose you."

"Then you have to lose your wife. I told you. My legs are closed!"

"Please?"

"Derek?" Addison asks, seeming to have woken up.

Derek leaves Meredith and goes to check on his wife.

"How are you feeling?"

"Are you fighting?" she asks, slightly confused.

"Never mind that. Tell me how you feel," he says and starts to check her vitals.

Meredith gets out of the bathroom and walks cautiously toward Addison and Derek. Addison has turned bleak and a thin glassy layer covers her eyes. She looks at her.

"Do I really look so bad?" she asks Meredith, stroking some sweaty hair from her forehead.

"No," Meredith says, trying to smile.

"Oh, you don't have to bother to do the patient thing on me."

In a patient gown, and with fluids connected to her system, she really looks like a patient.

"I'm sorry you had to get sick first," Derek says.

"Yeah...," Addison breathes, looking tormented.

"Think of it like this. When it's our turn to be sick, you are well again, so you can stand there and laugh at us," Meredith says.

Addison laughs slightly.

"Okay, leave me alone now, I want to sleep," Addison says and Derek nods and pulls the draperies around her.

"I don't want this much time alone with you," Meredith complains to Derek, but can't hide a crooked smile on her face.

"You don't hate me anymore," Derek says surprised, a smile quickly stretching from one of his cheeks to the other.

"You know I can't hate you."

"Why is that?" he teases, playing with a strand of her hair.

"Because... Because you're you. You're handsome," she says and gets a quick kiss on her lips. "A good kisser," she adds and gets another one. "And you're great in bed," she says and leans in to kiss him more slowly.

"I didn't know you were this shallow."

She shrugs as an answer. "What do you like the most about me?" she asks him, too afraid to mention that he told her that he loves her. Too afraid to go in for any deep emotions.

"Hm... Definitely your fists. They're so tiny and ineffectual," he says and strokes her bandaged hand.

Her thoughts travels to Addison. Which makes her think of they getting a divorce and then her thoughts travel to Addison's current medical state. She turns serious.

"Derek... What if... What if we won't make it?"

"You know that's not the right way to look at it. We'll fight. Fight and stay strong and live. Otherwise... You know what happens. Nothing happens. And we don't want nothing right?"

"No..."

"Exactly. So we fight and we can do this. We've got the medical resources, and all we need now is the willpower."

Meredith nods, thinking if she really has got enough willpower to make it through this.

"Meredith," Derek says and takes her face between his hands to make her look into his eyes. "You can do this."

Then he kisses her. He kisses her and then he lays her down softly on the hospital bed, so Addison won't hear.

"My legs are still closed you know," Meredith mumbles.

"I have to give her a chance."

"Is this you giving her a chance? Trying to get me in bed? Do you seriously think that's a good way to fix your shattered marriage?"

"No, I guess not," Derek sighs and rolls onto his back. "It's just so hard for me... Being so close to you. I have to see you all the time and I just wonder, if I've made the wrong choice?"

Meredith lays on her side with her hand on his chest.

"Actually, you haven't really made a choice."

"Yeah... I can't think straight. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm doing with you. I don't know what I'm doing with her," he says and meets her gaze.

"Still you have to give her a chance. Cause she's your wife," Meredith quotes helpfully.

"Yeah..."

"I can wait for you. But not forever. I won't wait for too long."

"I know."

"You're not really worth the wait, you know."

"I know," Derek sighs deeply, rubbing his face.

"Somehow I guess I'll do it anyway," she says and kisses his cheek.

The thing about being quarantined gives the three a sense of here and now. As if they have created this world. The marriage, the adultery, doesn't seem so important anymore. They are three people, stuck in a box. They are going to need each other, and it's not possible to hate each other then.

**~GAGAGAGA~**

When Meredith wakes up the next morning, Derek is taking a shower. Addison is sitting up in her bed, looking at her.

"Are you watching me sleep? That's creepy," Meredith tells her.

"Actually, I just woke up, and then I saw you and I remembered," she sighs.

"You hate me, don't you?"

Addison shrugs slyly.

"I don't blame you for hating me, you have every right to hate me," Meredith says.

"I don't hate you. I dislike you for you trying to take my husband from me now when you know I exist."

"I'm not trying to take him from you."

"Oh, yeah, but you still slept with him."

"You know he can think for himself, huh?"

Addison doesn't answer, so Meredith continues the talking.

"I don't hate you either. Not that you asked, but I thought you should know that I don't hate you."

"You get to hate me, Meredith. I am the reason for you two to split up. If I hadn't come to Seattle you would be happy, and I know you are thinking these things. But now I've got less than two weeks to live, supposedly, so you can go run into the sunset when I'm gone."

"You're not dying, and I still don't hate you. But I don't understand why you're trying to get him back now. Why can't you just let us be happy?" Meredith asks sadly.

"Because _I_ want to be happy, Meredith. We took vows and we promised to love each other through the good and the bad. There's just a lot of bad right now, but I want it to work. I need it to work out."

Meredith's thoughts travels to the day when she stepped in between Addison and Derek when they were fighting. She thinks about how Addison told him that he never saw her, that she only did what she did because she was desperate for him to notice her.

"Addison. Can I ask you something?"

Addison turns to look at her, seems to bend over the question in her head. Then she sighs. "Yeah, whatever."

"What do you think I was for him? Was I just a brick in your game? Was I revenge? Or could it possibly have been... real?"

"I don't know... I mean, he didn't even try to fight for me. He just left, so why would he have used you as revenge? Of course,_ I_ hope that you only were revenge for him, but honestly, I think it was real. Seems real. I don't like to say it – heck, I don't even know _why_ I'm saying it!"

"I'm sorry for messing up your marriage," Meredith says, after a while of consideration. "I should have been more suspicious when he never wanted to talk about himself or his past."

"I don't blame you," Addison says. "Well, I don't really like you, but I don't blame you. I blame him and myself. Marriage, and relationships, is always about two. It can't only be my fault, which Derek seems to think. I just wish he'd stop hating me. It makes me wanna go back home. But he's my husband, Meredith, and I love him and I want him to love me back. But I think he's got feelings for you, and I can't see him letting go of you. I'm not prepared to walk away, and I'll fight for him if it comes to that."

"I don't think he hates you," Meredith says after taking a breath.

Addison looks at her with surprise. "Really?" she says. "Why?"

"Because if he did, he wouldn't stay with you. He'd go to me. But he keeps choosing you. Or he won't choose anyone of us."

"Why do you say that?"

That moment Derek steps out of the shower and comes into the room with a towel tight around his hips. He looks at them, sees them lying on their sides, facing each other on their beds.

"What are you doing?" he frowns.

"Oh come on, Derek! Don't be so suspicious!" Addison groans.

"Are you seriously, talking, about... stuff?" He says, wiping his hair with another towel.

Addison rolls her eyes at him.

"You're making me tired, Derek. I'm going to sleep now," Addison says and takes a remote control to move her bed down so she can lie down.

"How are you feeling?" Derek asks and feels Addison's forehead. "Hm, kind of okay for now."

"That's an uplifting comment," Addison mutters.

"What were you talking about?" Derek smiles.

"You. We were discussing different ways to chop your head off," Addison explains.

Derek laughs a short laugh, which sounds kind of nervous.

"Okay, I'm going to take another shower," he says, leaving the two again.

"You know what, Addison?" Meredith says when he's gone. "I think Derek kind of suggested a ménage à trois," she snickers.

Addison laughs. "He'd wish!"

Meredith nods. "Why do we even want him?"

Addison groans. "I don't know. At least I feel obliged too... And he's Derek."

"He's got perfect hair."

"Like that's reason enough," Addison grunts, but with a smile on her face.

"He's got this annoyingly charmy way about him."

"Yeah, the thing that makes him Derek."

"It's so hard to hate him," Meredith sighs.

"Why is it so easy for him to hate me? Or be extremely mad at me or whatever?"

Meredith doesn't answer, she's thinking about the obvious reason. Because he loves Meredith. Because he thinks Addison coming to Seattle ruined his chances. But he's a coward, so he won't choose for himself. He has to be led, and that's more annoying than his perfect hair.

"Okay, your silence says it all," Addison sighs. "Spit it out."

Meredith hesitates.

"Spit – it – out."

"Maybe he... doesn't... want... you...," Meredith says slowly.

"Okay, thanks," Addison says sarcastically. "What makes you say that?"

Meredith hesitates again.

"Oh my god," Addison says when she sees the look on her face. She sits up in her bed, even though she's sick. "You know something. Something has happened. Something else than the dirty sex you two had! Out with it!"

"He said he loves me," Meredith says hastily, but regrets it as soon as the words has left her tongue.

"And here I thought we almost could be friends," Addison says through gritted teeth. And that's the last thing she says to Meredith.

**~GAGAGAGA~**

When Derek comes out from his second shower, Addison has turned her back to Meredith and Meredith seems distraught.

"What's going on?" Derek asks.

Addison doesn't react and Meredith gives him a look, a kind of desperate look with tear filled eyes.

"Meredith?" he gasps and sits down on her bed. Taking her hands in his.

"Oh, it's nothing," she says, snatching her hands out of his and crossing her arms.

"What is it?" he whispers, stroking her arms.

She shakes her head and bites her lip. "I don't know why I care. But I do care."

"About what?"

"About Addison!"

"What?" Derek breaths, glancing at his wife.

"I feel like such a horrible person."

"No, you don't have to feel that way. You're anything but horrible and you haven't done anything wrong. You couldn't hurt a fly, Mer," he says and smiles slightly. "Tell me what happened."

"I told her."

"You told her...?" he repeats, furrowing his eyebrows.

"I told her that you said you love me," Meredith says, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Derek's smile fades away and his face goes blank and hard. He pulls away from her.

"Derek?" Meredith breaths, but he ignores her and goes to be at Addison's side.

"Addison?" Derek asks and touches her shoulder.

She shudders. And he notices that she's crying. He moves some of her hair out of her face and sits down on the side so he's facing her. Over Addison he can also see Meredith, sitting on her own bed, not knowing what to do.

"It's over, it's over," Addison sobs in a mantra.

"Addison. Addison look at me," Derek says, putting her face between his hands, trying to make her look at him.

"It's over, it's over...," she continues.

"Look at me!"

She looks at him and stops her mantra.

"Oh, Derek," she gasps and starts crying heavily.

"Calm down, Addie."

"Oh, Derek. I thought we – we were going to make it but – but I don't know, Derek, I don't know! You don't love me anymore! You love _her!_"

"I don't know if I love you, because I haven't really forgiven you yet. You have to give me some time... Time to breath and time to forgive you. Then I can love you, but now, I don't really know."

Addison nods. "But her you love? Without confusion?"

"Yes, I do."

"You bastard," she says without any emphasis on her words. Then she whispers "oh no" as her superficial blood vessels begin to burst, causing nasty bleedings to erupt.

**~GAGAGAGA~**

As the disease spreads in their bodies, making them sicker and sicker, they get too sick to help each other. All they can do now is practically to trust the medical teams that from time to time checks in on them.

Meredith has gotten weak. Her tiny body has lost enormous masses of blood when the disease causes her to bleed and vomit more blood.

"I won't let you have a hypovolemic shock. I won't let you have organ failure. You won't die. You can't," Derek tells her, while spooning her in her bed. She leans almost outside of the bed, to vomit efficiently in a bowl when needed. She has got tubes stuck in her arm and in her nose. Derek has got tubes too, but only in his arm. He's not that sick yet. He's still got a couple of days to go.

She vomits blood. Then he helps her by pulling her back in the bed and drying her off. She's exhausted and her lips pale. He pokes on her blood bag, worrying that something is wrong, that the blood doesn't work by some reason.

Meredith is falling in and out of consciousness. She's groping for something to hold on to in the world between darkness and light. When she's awake she's not awake for long, and anxious when she gets out of her dark place.

"Derek?" she asks, trying to get common ground in her dark world.

"Meredith?" she hears him say, but she's not sure it's him or if she's dreaming.

Derek shakes her shoulder. The fever is going up and George O'Malley is hovering over her, trying to stop her bleedings.

"Meredith, wake up!" he says and shakes her harder.

Meredith's eyes open abruptly.

"Where am I?" she mumbles.

"It's okay, you're going to be fine," George says.

"You're just saying that to yourself. You're not the one with a 50-90% chance of dying here," Meredith says with her weak voice. "I'm thirsty," she mumbles to Derek, who's still holding her.

"I know. We're keeping you hydrated," he says, worriedly and kisses her neck. Her skin is getting cool and sweaty. "O'Malley," he says with a stern voice. "Blood and blood plasma. Now."

"Yes sir," George says, fumbling on with making everything work even though he's in a plastic gown, feeling even more clumsy than usual.

Meredith gets unconscious again.

"How's the others?" Derek asks George.

George doesn't answer. He just looks at him.

"Yeah we shouldn't talk about Yang with Meredith here."

"Derek? Are you talking about Cristina? How is she?" Meredith mumbles, apparently being conscious.

"She's fine," George lies to her.

"That's good. She's a fighter. She'll live through this," Meredith says.

"And so will you."

"Yeah I know. I won't let my organs shut down. I will stop bleeding. You know what they say, never trust a person who's bleeding a week every month without dying," she says and tries to laugh at her own joke, but doesn't really succeed.

"You will get through this," Derek says. "God, it was so stupid of us, nagging about our problems with our love lives when we all knew somehow, back in our brains that it would come to this."

"It's okay, Der..."

"No it's not. I've been treating you like a jerk."

"You have," Meredith smiles.

"I will make it up to you, I swear."

"I love you Derek," Meredith whispers, getting too tired to keep her eyes open.

"I love you too," he says.

"I want you to stay with me," she croaks in a whisper. "Choose me."

"Meredith Grey, I love you, even though you're soaked in blood, vomiting once every hour and smell like crap. Of course I'll stay with you."

"Yay," she breaths.

And after that bleak "yay" she falls into a long wished for sleep. Finally having a reason to come out of her dark and twisty places, and not act so suicidal all the time, she will fight. She will fight as well as she can, because she knows when she wakes up, Derek will be there, waiting for her.

When the doors open to expose her to freedom, she doesn't hesitate. She goes securely toward the light outside. She knows the sun will stroke her face and she knows everything will be fine.

Derek is with her, waiting for her there. His hair, glittering in the sunlight. At his side is Addison, looking fabulous as always. She smiles at her and stretches a hand out for her to grab. Cristina runs up to her side, hugging her, laughing. Derek holds his arms out.

She rises from her wheel chair. Moving toward Derek who takes her in his arms. Their lips meeting as if it was the first time. The sun warming them through the glass walls, filling her with hope and expectations.

Suddenly Bailey is standing there, with her hands on her hips, causing a small shadow with her short body. Meredith and Derek look at her questioningly.

"Well don't just stand there!" she orders. "Out with y'all of this hospital! You're free! Get out of here!"

* * *

_**A/N: Now I have to, seriously, thank you guys! You are awesome, and you're making it so fun for me to write! So now, fansies... :) Heads up for the sequel! :D**_


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